With crochet, artist makes super-realistic versions of everyday people

Finnish Liisa Hietanen is a person who really likes to crochet. Her love of thread and needle is such that over time she began to produce ever more elaborate work.

In Finland, crochet is a fairly common pastime - so much so that Finnish competitors attending the 2018 Winter Olympics have been seen crocheting before and after competitions.

For Hietanen, crochet, besides a hobby, is a way of creating sculptures of people. Her taste for crochet began during art classes at school, and the first sculpture she made was to honor her teacher - see the photo below:

Everyday people

Hietanen decided to transform people in her daily life, like her, in the village of Hämeenkyrö into crochet sculptures. Gradually, she asked them to model and, as she found her models, combined the poses with people and photographed them from various angles, as well as taking measurements of each one, so that the end result was perfect.

Most of the work is done based on the photos, but Hietanen eventually finds his models from time to time to make sure everything is going well.

The sculptures are structured with rebar and, to give the real weight to each of them, the artist makes fillings with cement. The fat finish, let's say, is made of softer, moldable materials that create a softer texture.

Comparation

For the artist, her work is comparable to modeling made with clay, except that the shapes of the sculptures are made line by line.

Hietanen learned to crochet and knit when he was 10 years old. She can paint too, but it is with thread and needle that she can express herself the way she likes.

“I study the essence of familiarity and share experiences. I meet the same familiar strangers every day on the streets and our common world is the size of a small village. I'm portraying the present moment by recording my surroundings, but at the same time I'm bringing out something common to all of us, ”said the artist, in a statement published on the Mother Nature Network.

Other approaches

In addition to creating life-size versions of various people, Hietanen also works with everyday objects, recreating items ranging from food and crockery to complete environments such as her crochet bathroom - see below and then tell us what you think of her work. :